Nearly 200,000 homes and businesses remained without power in the greater Los Angeles area Friday, and thousands of students stayed home for the second straight day, but the windstorm that disrupted thousands of lives died down hours earlier than expected.

Just how disruptive the windstorm turned out to be was illustrated by the Los Angeles Fire Department, which reported that it responded to 2,197 incidents during the 24-hour period ending at 11:59 p.m. Thursday compared to 1,022 incidents during a normal day.

A cold low-pressure system over Arizona continued to churn up strong north-to-northeast offshore winds Friday morning, but the winds then abated considerably, the National Weather Service said.

As a result, a red-flag warning denoting a high risk of wildfire because of strong winds and low humidity was canceled midmorning. It had been scheduled to expire at 3p.m. in most areas but at 6p.m. in the San Gabriel Mountains, the Angeles National Forest and the Santa Clarita Valley.

Still, “the potential exists for another round of gusty northeast winds Saturday afternoon into Sunday over Los Angeles and Ventura counties, with very low humidities,” according to an NWS advisory.

Another red-flag warning for much of the area will take effect at 6 a.m. today and last until 2 p.m. Sunday.

Griffith Park reopens today at dawn after being closed since Thursday due to massive Santa Ana wind damage.

Hundreds of trees were blown down and electrical service to the park’s east side was knocked out by one of the strongest windstorms to hit Southern California in years.

A Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department spokeswoman said that all of Griffith’s facilities, including the Observatory, will be open during regular operating hours starting today.

The adjacent Los Angeles Zoo was not closed due to the wind event.

Thursday’s winds – the worst seen in the region in decades, according to Southland firefighters and repair crews – uprooted trees, sheared off thousands of tree limbs and caused high-power lines to topple, wreaking havoc with power supplies throughout the Southland.

At last count, 62,000 customers were without power in Los Angeles, 35,000 less than late Thursday.